Ah, Wal-Mart ... Where the only thing lower than their prices is the quality; where the shelves are stocked with clothes, electronics, groceries and despair, and now, where you can exclusively get the AC/DC album, “Black Ice.”
AC/DC’s move to have their first album in eight years be a Wal-Mart exclusive says a lot about the album and where the band is in their career.
They seem to have completely abandoned any sense of creating music for artistic or creative expression, and are doing so now for only financial reasons.
AC/DC has been a corporate rock band for a long time, but the Wal-Mart deal puts an even bigger emphasis on the corporate part.
AC/DC’s always been known for repeating themselves. They even changed lead singers and managed to retain their same exact sound. But the repetition featured on “Black Ice” is far more obvious and lazy than it’s ever been before.
The album, just like every other AC/DC album, is filled with big blues riffs, chugging verses, pointless solos and an endless barrage of lyrics about partying, sex and the importance rock ‘n’ roll. The word “rock” appears in not one song title, not two, not even three but four song titles.
The song structure is bland and boring, with each song following the exact same song structure as the one before it. Something is seriously wrong when a 55-minute album feels like an hour and half.
AC/DC claims that they are still an “album band,” which they say is the main reason they made the Wal-Mart deal; people would have to buy the album in its entirety. But if they really were an album band the new album wouldn’t consist of so much filler.
